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"Ever wonder if City Council is as contentious and chaotic as it is sometimes portrayed? Here you can get a progressive perspective on some of the issues from someone who spent four years in the trenches. Totally unbiased, though!Feel free to comment but keep it respectful, just like they do at council."

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Charges, courts and claims

Although
there were no committee meetings this week for which to prepare or to
attend, the mayor gave his court date a miss.

Not
that he would have had any surprises there. The charges hadn't
changed. It was still breach of trust, fraud under $5,000 and forgery
pertaining to how the bills for his son's wedding reception at the
Marconi Club nearly eight years ago were paid. And the question was
still by whom? And when? Was it the Fontana family as claimed by the
mayor's lawyer, Gord Cudmore? Then what about the pictures in the
London Free Press of the invoices and cheques that indicated that
Public Works Canada had covered at least $1,700 of the total? And
what about the statements from the club manager at that time
verifying the authenticity of the of the documents?

Nor
had his plea changed. He is still pleading not guilty and has, in
fact, pronounced himself to be innocent of the charges. What exactly
that means, we aren't sure.

The
wheels of justice grind slowly. This was the third court date at
which nothing happened. It seems that the defence needed additional
time to have some discussions with the Crown. Hence the delays
since the charges were first read in court at the beginning of
January. This time the delay was even longer. October 28th
and 29th have been set aside for a preliminary hearing,
normally held at the request of the defendant, at which the crown
will disclose its evidence. That will be 53 weeks after the RCMP
initially laid the charges.

But no
doubt the mayor will have other legal matters to occupy his
attention. First up, on April 18th, is his appeal to the
federal court to quash Canada Revenue Agency's intention to remove
charitable status from Trinity Global Support Foundation which last
year issued $153M in tax receipts. Until very recently, Fontana was
chairman of the board of that organization and recruited family,
friends and acquaintances to join him, including one of his sons as
president of the charity, and a developer who is hoping to acquire
some city land for a mega project. Now, Fontana continues as an
ordinary board member. Some of those who were named as the
beneficiaries of his private foundation have professed themselves to
be shocked at the evaluations of the assistance given them in the
form of licenses for some computer tutorials. $4,500 for a single
licence to access tutorials and software which are often freely
available seemed a little steep. Multiply that by 200—the number of
licences donated—and you have a donation of $900,000 on which no
tax is paid.

In
May, the mayor will be before the courts again, this time in civil
court where he is being sued by a former employee/partner who claims
that GPEC, a “Christian” energy-from-waste company of which
Fontana was chairman of the management team, sent him off to Romania
to recruit municipal clients. The technology turned out to be faulty,
the money that investors had provided to GPEC disappeared, contracts
were not honoured, and the employee left high and dry without a pay
cheque and out of pocket for expenses incurred.

And
then, there is the tail end of a story that appeared in the Globe and
Mail on Monday. It's a complicated story but the upshot is that the
former head of the Palestinian Authority's public investment fund,
Muhammud Rashid, was convicted last June of defrauding the authority
of $34M. He didn't stick around for the court case; he high-tailed it
out of the country and is believed to be living in London England.

But
not before he managed to obtain Canadian citizenship and get involved
in some business dealings right here in London Ontario. Although
he was not living in Canada as required, somehow Rashid, also known
as Khaled Salam, managed to get a Canadian passport in 2003. At the
time Joe Fontana, MP for London North Centre, was chairman
of the House of Commons citizenship and immigration committee.

A few
years earlier, in 1999, the Palestinian Authority had invested in
Bioniche Life Sciences Inc., a pharmaceutical company at
that time located in London
Ontario. The president of that company was approached by MP
Joe Fontana who told him that
the Canadian Government was helping Palestine look for investments.
Fontana wanted to bring some
potential investors to London and for a while, Rashid was on the
board of directors of Bioniche. Later,
the Palestine investments were bought out by Bioniche as part of its effort to attract
American financing.

Now,
Palestine would like some help from Canada to
to find the missing money and to bring Rashid home. It is particularly interested
in learning about Rashid's
business dealings in Canada. And
how did he get a Canadian passport on which, it appears, he is
currently travelling?

Attempts
by the Globe and Mail to have those questions addressed by London's
mayor received no response. There won't be any court date to deal with that.

********************

Thanks to a savvy reader, I just received this update. Apparently Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is having his department look into the citizenship thing. Thanks, John!

7 comments:

My concern about the mayor's questionable past is that his present also seems questionable. His championing of the Fincore proposal for SOHO on the old Victoria Hospital lands is very concerning.

Why is the mayor so determined to see that a deal with one particular developer is pushed through as fast a possible? Would not the more appropriate approach be for the planning department to review a variety of proposals and include the community in such a major development?

Given the above, it must be somewhat demoralizing to work for the City of London at the present time.One can hope that a culture of crookedness does not percolate through the ranks of City operations, as a variation of the 'broken window effect'.London could use a credible, squeaky-clean cheerleader.Any nominations?Or, how about a mascot?

As a CoL employee, it's not demoralizing at all. We recognize our esteemed council for being the collective gong show that they are - and quite little of that which is breathlessly (and often salaciously) reported makes ANY difference to our day-to-day jobs of serving the residents of London.

The really,really sad part of all of this is that the Mayor seems to be getting away with all of the questionable going's on while he is office. If it were the average Joe Blow in this city they would be charged and jailed by now, but then there is the saying "Money talks, Bullshit Walks" and it applies to Joe Fontana.

Slippery the Seal might be an appropriate mascot for London, but likely copyrighted so maybe Slippery the Eel.Joe could probably do a Harry Houdini and get out of a straight jacket faster than anyone on the planet. He seems able to wriggle out of any situation.